A senior minister raises the question of the 24-week limit - but what issues and laws are involved?
Downing Street has said there are no plans to change the legal limit on abortions after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt revealed he would favour a reduction from 24 to 12 weeks. Campaigners have vowed to re-open the fight to tighten up the laws but pro-choice groups have criticised his remarks.
In 1945 an exception was added that abortion could be permitted to preserve the life of the mother. Abortions are also allowed if continuing with the pregnancy will result in other serious physical or mental health effects. The UK Government granted access to NHS-funded abortions for Northern Irish women in Great Britain in 2017. Previously women had to fund the procedure themselves.
A section of the Act also lowered the legal time limit for abortions from 28 to 24 weeks, deemed to be the point at which a foetus was"viable". The vote saw MPs of all parties have a free say on the issue and were on a series of amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. But those arguing against a reduction cited studies, including one published in the British Medical Journal, showing that while survival rates had increased significantly for babies born at 24 and 25 weeks, they had not risen for babies born 23 weeks or less.
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